Competency evaluation planned in shooting-threat case

Tuesday

A status date has been set for a Copan man who reportedly threatened a mass shooting at the Copan High School last year, at which time the matter of his competency may be addressed.

A status date has been set for a Copan man who reportedly threatened a mass shooting at the Copan High School last year, at which time the matter of his competency may be addressed.

Kyle James Benefiel, 23, faces charges of planning, conspiring or endeavoring to perform an act of violence as a result of two alleged threatening emails sent in November.

Benefiel will appear Jan. 22 for purposes of status. A competency evaluation had been ordered in the case in mid-December.

According to the case’s probable cause affidavit filed by Washington County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Margina Solomon, Benefiel sent two emails to Bartlesville police, through the city’s website, "threatening a mass shooting at Copan Public Schools." According to the report, the email contained Benefiel’s name, address, home phone number and email address.

The affidavit shows both emails were written in a stream of consciousness, run-on sentence style with no spaces between the words.

The first email read in part (with spaces and punctuation added): "I am Kyle Benefiel, I am going to commit a mass shooting. This is real. This is no joke." Further, he said that if law enforcement came to check the threat out, he was going to commit suicide and that he would use "a 22 shotgun."

"This will happen at Copan Public School," he wrote. "Because I am lonely and I got no woman to talk to and no girlfriend" and further that "this will happen on Nov 24., 2015."

In the second email, he made similar threats and said "I don’t want to go to jail take me to Jane Phillips Medical Center Mental Health Ward."

Both emails end with the line "thanks and goodbye."

When questioned, Benefiel reportedly "admitted to sending the emails" and further that "he had been planning the mass shooting for a long time" and he "wanted to get his point across about how he felt."

"Mr. Benefiel said he did not care who he shot, be it kids or faculty, he just wanted to kill people so he could impress a girl who would become his girlfriend."

Benefiel is being held on $250,000 bond.

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